Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU). JH-IIRU, within the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, leads the ReLAB-HS consortium. The Research Unit identifies effective solutions to the growing burden of injuries in low- and middle-income populations, influences public policy and practice, and advances the field of injury prevention throughout the world. Since its creation in 2008, JH-IIRU has led cutting-edge research in global injury prevention and control. JH-IIRU is active in over 30 countries around the globe, implementing a coordinated strategy involving research, education and practice. In recognition of its growing role as a leader in injury prevention, the Unit was designated as a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Injuries, Violence and Accident Prevention.
Dr. Abdulgafoor M. Bachani is Associate Professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Director for the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU). Dr. Bachani’s research focuses on health systems, as well as developing and implementing innovative approaches to measuring the burden of and preventing injury and disabilities. He holds a particular interest in developing approaches for: the measurement of disability and understanding the long-term health, economic, and societal consequences of injuries; strengthening health systems to enhance access to rehabilitation services in low-resource settings; applying novel information and communication technology approaches to injury prevention, disability, and rehabilitation; and, developing sustainable capacity for research and practice in the field of injury prevention, disability, and rehabilitation. Dr. Bachani has contributed to several empirical studies and global reports focused on injuries, disability, and rehabilitation in low- and middle-income countries. As director of JH-IIRU, he leads a diverse, multidisciplinary team of faculty and scientists to identify solutions, influence policy, and advance the field of injury prevention and rehabilitation globally.
Dr Antonio Trujillo’s broad interest includes the fields of health economics, economics of aging and applied econometrics. He has investigated the links between cognitive decline and chronic conditions among older adults; and the role of personal traits on behavior of patients with chronic conditions; and how information on personal traits can be used to target health interventions. In his recent work, he has investigated the role of mixed incentives (individual and group cash rewards) on the behaviors of patients with chronic conditions. The aim is to use this information to design interventions to reduce the burden of chronic disease. As part of this work, he has been testing behavioral economic strategies in Baltimore corner stores. He has used Discrete Choice Experiments to explore consumer preferences for health plans in the context of a subsidized public health insurance. He teaches an advanced econometrics course on program impact evaluation using observational data, and he also teaches a course on Behavioral Economics and Public Health.
Courtland Robinson, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Health with a joint appointment in the Department of Population Family and Reproductive Health, and is also core faculty with the Center for Humanitarian Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research interests have focused on populations in migration, whether displaced by conflict or natural disaster, or in the context of migrant labor and human trafficking.
Dr. Georgia J. Michlig is a mixed methodologist with experience in robust community-based participatory approaches to research and service delivery. Her research has largely focused on refugee and humanitarian health, with a particular focus on global mental health and health service use among humanitarian or other vulnerable populations. Her recent work has expanded to include exploring the role of health systems strengthening in impacting population level health, with a particular emphasis on post-injury rehabilitation and survivors of natural disaster. Dr. Michlig is deeply passionate about the promotion of workplace mental health, especially among high-risk worker populations such as healthcare and humanitarian workers and first responders globally. What joins her various projects together is an effort to engage with persons and communities exposed to potentially traumatic events, whether that be non-fatal injury, armed conflict, natural disaster, forced migration, and/or gender-based violence. Her research explores how survivors both individually and collectively cope and recover from these experiences, and how health systems can be responsive to these needs. This work aims to counter the ever-increasing burden of functional impairment, decreased quality of life and disability caused by untreated physical and psychological trauma.
Dr Jacob Bentley is a clinical psychologist with board certification in the specialty of rehabilitation psychology. He holds appointments in the Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health and Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His research is interdisciplinary and focused on inclusive global health, with particular emphasis on facilitating access to health services among vulnerable groups such as individuals with disabilities in low-to-middle income countries and people displaced by humanitarian conflict. He has published 50 academic manuscripts and chapters and presented at many national and international conferences. He has previously contributed to work in Uganda funded by the Fogarty International Center and the World Health Organization (WHO) focused on international finance models for rehabilitation medicine. His research has also been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. He has contributed to WHO’s Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology (GATE) program. He is also pleased to contribute to ReLAB-HS Telerehabilitation Working Group in addition to other activities within the consortium.
Jessica Ott is an Assistant Scientist in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She received a PhD in cultural anthropology from Michigan State University in 2020, where she conducted Fulbright-supported research on civil society strategies to address gender violence in historical context in Zanzibar. Jessica supports the Learning, Acting and Building for Rehabilitation in Health Systems Consortium in its work related to rehabilitation and equity. She has growing interests in how gender and other social factors intersect to shape rehabilitation access, use, and experiences and in caregiving.
Lore Businge is a Program Officer/Research Associate supporting the Re-LAB HS project. She holds an MPH from Boston University School of Public Health and a B.M. in Music Therapy from Elizabethtown College. Lore has over six years of experience managing global health projects from donors including USAID, CDC, DOD, and various foundations and corporations.
Dr. Akram has been working with Johns Hopkins University in different leadership and technical roles for 16 years and is currently a Senior Research Associate and faculty in the Bloomberg School of Public Health. In this capacity, he is overseeing implementation of USAID’s flagship rehabilitation and health systems activity – Learning, Acting and Building for Rehabilitation in Health Systems, or ReLAB-HS, as Director Operations. Previously, he held the position of Director for Asia for Jhpiego – another Johns Hopkins affiliate, for over 10 years with an annual portfolio of $80 million of projects in MNCH/RH, non-communicable diseases, health systems strengthening, and private sector engagement. Dr. Akram has developed several program designs of large, multimillion dollar development projects in LMICs and has spearheaded their successful implementation. Dr. Akram is a medical doctor with advanced degrees in business, and health policy and management. As a medical and business professional, Dr. Akram has a proven record of providing high-level programmatic and technical leadership at country, regional and global levels.
Dr. Nukhba Zia, MBBS MPH PhD, is an Assistant Scientist in the Health Systems program in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also a core faculty of the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit. She is a trained physician and a health systems researcher. Over the past ten years, she has worked in several countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia including Pakistan and Uganda on various injury, disability, and rehabilitation projects. She has particular interest in understanding health and education needs of children and adolescent. Through her work, Dr. Zia has engaged with WHO, UNICEF, academic partners and NGOs to understand global and local context to implement contextually relevant interventions. Dr. Zia is co- Program Technical Coordinator for the Learning, Acting and Building for Rehabilitation in Health Systems (ReLAB-HS) and provides technical support to the consortium partners and country teams in the planning and implementation of the activities.
Dr. Qingfeng Li is an assistant professor in the Department of International Health and an associate director of the International Injury Research Unit at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. A demographer and statistician by training, he teaches courses on monitoring and evaluation methods and systems science modeling. His current projects include road safety, drowning prevention, systems science, and big data.
Rachel Neill is a researcher and PhD student at the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research draws from social science and public health methods to advance Universal Health Coverage policies in low- and middle-income countries. Prior to Johns Hopkins, Rachel was a Senior Program Officer at Results for Development Institute where she managed health financing and systems strengthening projects in sub-Saharan Africa.
Rosemary Morgan, PhD is an Assistant Scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of International Health. Dr. Morgan acts as the Inclusive Development for the Learning, Acting and Building for Rehabilitation in Health Systems Consortium, where we works to integrate gender equality and social inclusion into program activities. She also acts as a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion advisor for the UK Partnerships for Health Systems programme, leads the Sex and Gender Analysis Core for the NIH funded Sex and Age Differences in Immunity to Influenza Center, is a co-primary investigator on a project exploring the gendered effects of COVID-19 in five countries, and co-coordinates an international Gender and COVID-19 Working Group.
Stephen T. Wegener, Ph.D., ABPP is Director, Division of Rehabilitation Psychology and Neuropsychology, Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He has a joint appointment as Professor of Health Policy and Management in the Bloomberg School of Public Health Johns Hopkins University. He is a Fulbright Scholar serving as Visiting Academic at Trinity College, Dublin Ireland. . His clinical activity is focused on providing psychological services to persons with traumatic injuries and chronic illness . His research focuses on theories and projects that have the potential to improve function and reduce disability following injury or illness in the national and international context. These projects emphasize the importance of patient-centered care models, self-management by patients and the use of motivational interviewing by providers. His research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Defense, PCORI and several foundations.
Yusra Shawar, MPH PhD is an Assistant Scientist in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and holds a joint appointment at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Her research concerns the global governance of health and the politics of health policy processes. Her research has been funded by Save the Children, the Conrad N Hilton Foundation, Stanford University, USAID, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Elevate Children Funders Group, and Oak Foundation. Her work has been published in multiple journals including the Lancet, Lancet Global Health, Health Policy and Planning, and the Journal of Global Health. She has been involved in two Lancet series concerning early childhood development and gender norms and equality in global health, as well as a WHO-UNICEF-Lancet commission on child wellbeing. She is the policy process section editor at Health Policy and Planning. She received her undergraduate and MPH degrees from the University of Virginia, her doctorate from the Department of Public Administration and Public Policy at American University, and she was a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.